1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a vehicular control system capable of notifying the driver of a state obstructing the run of the vehicle on a plan route to be followed.
2. Related Art
It is desired that the vehicle can smoothly run to a destination. If, however, an obstructing state such as a section under construction or a stagnant section is present on a plan route to be followed to the destination, the run is delayed, or a bypass run is required so that the running plan, as intended by the driver, cannot be pursued. In recent years, therefore, there has been proposed a vehicular control system which is enabled to avoid the obstructing state by detecting the road situations of the plan route in advance by the navigation system and by setting or changing the plan route in accordance with the detected information. One example of this vehicular control system is disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No. 58141/1994 (i.e., JPB6-58141).
The vehicular control system, as disclosed, comprises: running state detecting means for detecting the running state of the vehicle; a navigation system for detecting the road situations, the running azimuth of the vehicle and the present position of the vehicle and for displaying the detected information graphically; and change means for changing the control pattern of an automatic transmission in accordance with the road information obtained by the navigation system. As a result, the road situations, as detected by the navigation system, are graphically displayed so that the driver is enabled to cope with the obstructing state by recognizing the state of the plan route in advance.
In the vehicular control system as disclosed in the above-specified Publication, however, the driver is made to cope with the obstructing state by viewing the displayed image of the navigation system to recognize the road situations. This makes it impossible to recognize the displayed image visually if the driver has a poor consciousness or a concentration on the driving operation. In this case, the driver may be unable to recognize the obstructing state of the run and may be delayed in coping with the obstructing state to cause a trouble in the run of the vehicle.